12/01/16

From handmade soap, stamps, jewelry and furniture to one-of-a-kind art pieces, the maker movement has turned Sacramento into a hotbed of creativity and ingenuity. Start or finish your holiday shopping in support of these local artisans by stopping by one of these eight upcoming markets.
Pence Gallery Holiday Market
Through Dec. 24 This annual Davis holiday sale is open daily for interested buyers to walk through the Pence Gallery to browse handmade items from over 30 local artists from Sacramento, Davis and the Bay Area. Beginning Dec. 9, Sacramento painter Anne Gregory will have a featured exhibit of her animal paintings in the gallery with some of her art available for purchase as a part of the market. Free. 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. 212 D St. Davis. 530-758-3370....

11/28/16

Get into the holiday spirit with the annual 12 Days of Midtown, which will highlight festive happenings throughout the neighborhood's bustling 80-block radius from Dec. 1-12.
The celebration will feature everything from a production of A Christmas Carol to a hot toddy contest. “When I think about the holidays, I think about the nostalgia of strolling through different neighborhoods, seeing lights and [eating] good food,” says Emily Baime Michaels, executive director of the Midtown Business Association, which is putting on the event. “My hope is that [the event] becomes part of the holiday tradition for people and their families.”
Take a wreath-decorating class at Relles Florist on Dec. 3 ($45; rellesflorist.com), or a cooking class at the...

11/23/16

As Thanksgiving approaches, holiday spirit is in the air. Sacramento and its surrounding cities are opening their ice rinks and decorating their Christmas trees to the nines for St. Nick’s arrival. Read on for our list of 10 local tree lighting ceremonies.
Old Sacramento
Nov. 23 On Thanksgiving Eve, Santa Claus himself will light the historic district’s 60-foot-tall Christmas tree decorated with ornaments like oversized stockings and gingerbread men. The event will kick off the Macy’s Theatre of Lights festival, which will continue each weekend through Christmas Eve. After checking out the sparkly evergreen, take in a live-action performance of Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” narrated by Bill Farmer...

11/22/16

Saturday night, after showing up 90 minutes or so late, Kanye West abruptly ended his sold-out concert at the Golden 1 Center after a few songs, followed by an increasingly nonsensical diatribe in which he scolded Beyoncé and Jay Z and name-checked both Taylor Swift and the president-elect. Monday morning, West canceled the remainder of his Saint Pablo tour, and was hospitalized later in the day, reportedly due in part to "exhaustion" from ... too much fashion design. Boy, we hate it when that happens.
Kanye either performed two, three or four songs, depending on whether you count parts one and two of Father Stretch My Hands as one or two songs (and according to this set list, he seems to have played part one twice).
Regardless, it turns out...